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REPORT 



Commission for the Preservation. Protection, 
AND Appropriate Designation 



H 




At The Weirs, m the Town of Lacoiiia, 



APPOINTED BY THE 



GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL, 



IN ACCORDANCE WITH JOINT RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGIS- 
LATURE, APPROVED SEPTEMBER 7, 1883, AND 
AUGUST 25, 1885. 



CONCORD : 

Ira C. Evans, Public Printer 

1893. 



^>^\iAA X 



4 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

summer of 1891, when it was resumed, and the structure 
now covering the rock was completed the following 
spring. 

Upon its completion, the only remaining duty of the 
commissioners was its transfer to the possession of the 
State. This was effected at the Weirs, on the first day 
of August, 1892, two hundred and forty years after this 
rock had been selected and marked as an important 
monument by the colony of Massachusetts Bay, by its 
delivery to his excellency the governor, in presence of 
the honorable council and of a large concourse of people. 
The exercises of the occasion were as follows : 
Joseph B. Walker, previously appointed by the com- 
missioners as president of the occasion, upon taking the 
chair, briefly remarked : 

I invite you to forget, for a time, the present, and to go back in remem- 
brance to the time when all of civilized New Hampshire was embraced 
within the limits of the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton, 
and Exeter ; to the days of the English commonwealth, when Oliver 
Cromwell ruled our mother country ; when New Hampshire was living 
in happy union with its sister colony of IVIassachusetts Bay and John 
Endicott was governor of both . At that time, the Bay colony appointed 
commissioners to ascertain the head of Merrimack river. They found 
it, they say, in their rejDort to the general court, at " Aquedacan," 
the name of the head of the Merrimack, where it issues out of the lake 
" Winnepusseakit,"and upon yonder boulder in the midst of the stream, 
they engraved the name of the governor and their own initials. 

For nearly two centuries, this stone submerged in the stream, like 
the body of Alaric of old in the Busento, rested unknown and forgotten. 
When, some sixty years ago, it was accidentally discovered, it excited 
great interest, not only on account of the event which it commemo- 
rates, and its location at the point where our beautiful lake narrows to 
a beautiful river, but as an enduring memorial of the former union of 
our people with those of Massachusetts. It is, I believe, the oldest 
monument of general interest now existing in the State. 

In 1883, our Legislature made provision for its elevation above the 
level of high water, and for its preservation — a duty which it owed to 
itself, and an act of courtesy to the grand old commonwealth with 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 5 

which New Hampshire was happily united for nearly half a century. 
The commission appointed for the execution of that purpose, having 
discharged the duty assigned it, is here to transfer to the State of New 
Hampshire the structure which they have caused to be erected. Deem- 
ing it fit that, on such an occasion, the constant care of a benign 
Providence which has watched over these two States during this long 
period, which almost spans their entire history, should be devoutly 
recognized, the commission has invited the Rev. Dr. Andrew P. 
Peabody, once of New Hampshire and now of Massachusetts, to open 
these exercises with prayer. 

Thereupon, he introduced the Rev. Dr. Peabody, of 
Cambridge, Mass., who offered a solemn prayer appro- 
priate to the occasion. 

Upon its conchision, the president stated that the com- 
missioners had requested Mr. Erastus P. Jewell, who 
had been long and intimately conversant with the history 
of this locality, to prepare and deliver, on this occasion, 
an historical address relative to this particular section of 
New Hampshire and to its southern boundary line, which 
he kindly consented to do. He thereupon presented to 
the audience Mr. Jewell, of Laconia, who delivered the 
following address : 

ADDRESS OF MR. JEWELL. 

The substantial structure which the State of New Hampshire has 
erected for the preservation of the Endicott .Rock with its ancient 
inscription, is designed to perpetuate the record of an important event 
in colonial history. 

Two hundred and forty years ago this beautiful water of the high- 
lands was probably discovered by civilized man. There is no reasonable 
doubt that the explorers stood upon this historic stone, August i, 1652, 
and upon that day cut the inscription upon its granite face. 

There is something sacred about this remarkable record which marks 
a period only thirty-two years from the first settlement of Plymouth. 
The stone is the oldest public monument in New England. Its age 
alone would command respect. 

Several of the principal nobility of England obtained from King 



6 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

James all the land in America between the degrees of forty and forty- 
eight north latitude, by the name of New England. 

The grantees of this unknown territory were known as the council of 
New England. 

John JMason obtained from this corporation several grants, bearing 
date March 9, 1621 ; August 10, 1622; November 7, 1629; and 
April 22, 1635. He was instated in fee in a vast tract of land known 
as New Hampshire. 

November 27, 1629, Mason and Ferdinando Gorges procured a 
grant of territory by the name of Laconia. 

Mason transported settlers, built houses, forts, and magazines, fur- 
nished arms,, including artillery, and all necessary materials for estab- 
lishing a plantation, at very great expense. 

In 1628, the governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay in 
New England secured from the council of New England a grant of 
certain lands, therein described. A royal charter was obtained 
March 4, 1629. ^ 

The boundaries and descriptions in all these grants were imperfect 
and strangely confused. The interior had never been explored, and 
difficulties of the most perplexing nature arose as soon as settlements 
were undertaken upon the territory which seemed to be included in 
both the grants to Mason and to the Bay company. 

A section of the Massachusetts charter referring to the northern 
boundary was as follows : "and also all and singular lands and hered- 
itaments whatsoever which lie and be within the space of thr6e English 
miles to the nortliward of said river called Monomack alias Merry- 
mack, or to the northward of any and every part thereof." 

Mason's New Hampshire grant of November 7, 1629, embraced all 
that part of the main land in New England lying upon the sea coast, 
beginning from the middle part of MerrimacT? river and from thence 
northward along the sea coast to Piscataqua river, and ' ' so forwards 
up within the said river and to the furthest head thereof, and from 
thence northwestward until threescore miles be finished from the first 
entrance of Piscataqua river; also from Merrimack through the said 
river and to the furthest head thereof and so forwards up into the lands 
westward until threescore miles be finished," etc. 

In 1652, the iMassachusetts colony resolved upon an exploring e.xpe- 
dition to determine and to fix the northern boundaries of their patent. 

Prior to this time conflicting views upon the construction of the 
peculiar description in their charter had been entertained, and now 
upon a careful perusal of the instrument it was determined that a point 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 7 

three miles northward of the head of tlie Mcninuick was the iiorlheni 
limit of their territory, and this notable expedition was organized to go 
up the river to find the head thereof and to establish the bounds. 

At this time probably no white man had ever approached the lake 
nearer than a point three miles northward of the " forks" of the river 
at Franklin. 

The general court of the Massachusetts Bay colony in July, 1638, 
ordered Goodman Woodman and Mr. John Stretton with an Indian 
and two others, api)ointed by the magistrates of Ipswich, "to lay out 
the line three miles northward of the most northernmost part of Mer- 
rimack," "for well" they were to have " 5 jr. a day apiece." 

May 22, 1639, I fi^'i ^l^^t Woodward " was ordered to have 3 £ for 
his journey to discover the running up of Merrimack," 10 s. more 
were added by order of the governor and deputies, "and they which 
went with them, Thos. Houlet, Sargent Jacobs, Thos. Clark & John 
Manning to have 50 s. apiece." 

This committee placed the northern line at a great pine tree, three 
miles north of the union of the Winnipesaukee and Pemigewasset 
rivers, then considered the head of the Merrimack as it has since been 
established. 

This first survey must have occupied nearly two weeks, and doubtless 
was made in the summer or early autumn of 1638. 

The pine tree was marked to indicate the extreme limit of the col- 
onial charter, and was known for many years as " Endicott's Tree." 

It is formally alluded to in the claim presented by Massachusetts to 
the celebrated Salisbury court, August 8, 1737, as '' a certain tree com- 
monly known for more than seventy years past by the name of Endicott's 
Tree, standing three miles northward of the parting of the Merrimack 
river," etc. No one knows where this tree stood. 

Dr. Runnels, in his excellent " History of Sanbornton," says, " it was 
of no account for a colonial bound after the year 1639. ^t lived. It 
died. But no man knoweth of its sepulchre unto this day." 

The constraction put upon the charter in the spring of 1652, made 
an authoritative exploration a necessity. 

Difficulties and complications had arisen, involving other charters and 
individual rights. The conflict was serious and the difficulties great. 

The men who came up the Merrimack two hundred and forty years 
ago did not penetrate the wilderness as adventurers. 

They were representatives of the colony, and came to determine 
boundaries and to take posses.sion. The order of the court. May 3, 
1652, was as follows : " For the better discovery of the north line of 



5 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

our Patent, it is ordered by this Court that Capt. Symon Willard and 
Capt. Edward Johnson be appointed as commissioners, to procure such 
artists and other assistants as they shall judge meet, to go with them 
\.o find Old the most northerly part of Merrimack river, and that they 
be supplied with all manner of necessaries by the Treasurer fit for this 
journey, and that they use their utmost skill and ability to take a true 
observation of the latitjide of that place, and that they do it with all 
convenient speed and make return thereof to the next session of this 
Court." 

The great purpose was to reach the most northerly part of the river. 
The head oi the Merrimack was the point in doubt. 

The expedition of 1638 seemingly had not reached the head of the 
river. They had only reached the forks of a river. 

For the new enterprise iiery able i?ten were chosen. 

Willard was a captain of militia and frequently a member of the 
general court, from Concord. He afterward commanded a portion of 
Massachusetts's forces in King Philip's war. He was born in Kent, 
England. He came to Massachusetts in 1634. He died at Charles- 
town, April 24, 1676. 

Johnson came to New England in 1630. He was a representative 
from Woburn for twenty-seven years. He was speaker of the house 
in 1655. He was the author of " Wonder Working Providence of 
Zion's Savior in New England," which was published in London in 
1654. He died, April 23, 1672. 

Willard and Johnson were active and leading men in all colonial 
affairs . 

The commissioners procured Jonathan Ince, a scholar who lived at 
Cambridge, and John Sherman, a prominent citizen and land sur- 
veyor of Watertown, as artists or surveyors, to observe and take the 
latitude of the most northerly part, or the head of Merrimack river. 

Sherman was the great-grandfather of the celebrated Roger Sherman, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, mentions Ince as " a godly young 
man who hath a singular faculty to learn and pronounce the Indian 
tongue." Ince was undoubtedly selected because he could do the 
scientific work of the expedition and could also communicate with the 
Indians. Dr. Samuel A. Green, in his pamphlet on the Northern 
Boundary of Massachusetts, speaks of Ince as the " Confidential clerk 
of President Dunster." He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1650, 
and acted in various capacities connected with the college for, several 
years afterward. I have little doubt that the inscription was the work 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 9 

of Jonathan Ince and that his own initials were tlie last whicii received 
the touch of his hand. 

It is doubtful if four other men could iiave been found in New 
England so well equipped for the important work before them. 

James Prentiss and another white man whose name is not preserved, 
accompanied the commissioners as laborers. 

Willard and Johnson "indented with two Indians well acquainted 
with Merrimack river and the great lake born and bred all their dales 
thereupon, very intelligent as any in all these parts." 

The language of the report is. "we covenanted with them to lead 
us up. the Merrimack river as far as the river was Merrimack river." 

Few Indians' names survive except the great leaders of the extinct 
race, but Pontauhum and Ponbakin, the intelligent native guides who 
were acquainted with the great lake, and who led this first expedition 
to it, have an abiding place in history. 

Indians were indispensable in these first journeys into the interior. 
It will be remembered that one was appointed by the magistrates in 
1638, to go with Woodward and Stretton. 

Willard and Johnson evidently selected superior guides, "very 
hitelligetit and well acquainted with the ri\'er and lake," upon whom 
they could rely for necessary information. 

When they came to the forks of the river and to " Endicott's Tree " 
with the marks upon it, placed there fourteen years before by the 
former explorers, a serious question arose as to how far the river was 
Merrimack and which of the branches, if either, was to be followed. 

They report. " when we came short of the lake about 60 miles, then 
came two rivers into, one from the westward of north and the other 
from northward of the east. The westerly river to me, as I then 
thought, was bigger than the other ; but taking notice of both these 
rivers, and knowing we must make use of but one, I called the Indians 
to inform us which was Merrimack river ; their answer was, the river 
which was next unto us, that came from the Easterl}- point, which river 
we followed into the lake." 

From the affidavit of Richard Waldern, called out by the general 
court in 1665 to give evidence of what he knew about the name of 
Merrimack river (Provincial Papers, vol. i, 290), it appears the 
Indians understood both branches to be a part of the Merrimack, " not 
only in that branch which runneth from Winnipiciocket but the other 
branch which runneth more westerly." 

Peter Weares also declared under oath, that the natives told him, as 



10 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

far back as 1638, tliat the lake called Winnipiseket issues into the river 
of Merrimack. 

Pontauhum and Ponbakin must be regarded as undoubted authority 
at that time, that the Merrimack river continued to the lake. 

The ditiiculty of navigating the Winnipesaukee at that season of 
the year is evident, from their estimate of the distance from Franklin 
to the Weirs. That a sail-boat was used appears from the commis- 
sioners' account. They charge for making the boat, 3 ^{^ 01 ^■.00 d. 

Upon their return they give credit for the " Sayles, pieces of rope 
and two blocks, the boat and some ruff &c., that were left 02 £ 
17 s. o c/." 

Whether or not a sail-boat reached the lake at that time must for- 
ever remain a matter of conjecture. The Indians navigated the river 
from Aquedoctan to the sea with very large boats, and had "Carrying 
places," as they were called, where the boats were taken out and car- 
ried past the falls. It is not improbable that the trouble in getting up 
the river from Franklin was on account of the difficulties incident to 
the sail-boat. 

Upon their arrival at the lake a well shaped boulder was found 
exactly at the head of the river, seemingly inviting the inscription 
which we have examined to-day, and which is destined to be an object 
of interest to unborn generations who shall hereafter come from the 
hot and crowded cities, for rest and comfort, and to enjoy the pure air 
and unsurpassed scenery of central and northern New Hampshire. 

It is fortunate that we know the names of the pioneer tourists to this 
delightful spot. Fortunate that they left their enduring initials upon 
the only register open to them. 

Here was an Indian village then, and many of the children of the 
deep woods had never seen a paleface. 

It is difficult to state when the Indians finally left their village at 
Aquedoctan, but it is well known that Isaac liradley and Joseph 
Whittaker were taken by the Indians at Haverhill, Mass., in the fall 
of 1695, and were captives at the lake all winter. 

They escaped the following spring, and after nine days in the woods 
arrived safely at Saco. 

Aquedoctan of 1652 was a large Indian fishing place. Here the 
natives came from a distance to get fish to dry and smoke for a win- 
ter supply of food. Stone weirs were built in the river. 

The Penacook word for Weirs was Aquedoctan. The great stone 
fish trap was constructed in the form of a W. The lower points 
extended quite a distance below the present iron bridge ; the walls 



REPORT OP THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 11 

extended up the river some ten or fifteen rods and touehed the shores. 
Good sized stones, such as could be picked up in the river and on the 
shores, were used ; at low or ordinary stages of the water the walls 
were never covered, but at flood times the water flowed over them. 
They were substantially built. 

The lower points were left open a few feet for the water and fish to 
go through. A short distance below the opening another wall was 
built, in a half-circle, and into the spaces were placed wickerwork, 
through which the water could easily flow, but fine enough to secure 
fish of any considerable size. 

Mr. Augustus Doe, a former resident and a very intelligent man, who 
had seen the weirs himself, and had learned much about them from the 
earlier settlers, estimated that it would require the labor of two good 
men two months to build the walls. 

Into these traps fish, including shad, which were then very abundant 
in these waters, were driven and easily captured. 

As is well known, the salmon never came up the Winnipesaukee 
river. The salmon and shad parted company at Franklin. 

When the white settlers came, the weirs were in a good state of 
preservation and were used by them. 

Fish wardens were appointed yearly, whose duty it was to go two 
days each week, I think, to see that the fish were fairly distributed among 
the people who assembled here. If enough were not found in the 
traps, boats and rafts were sent up into the lake and the water was 
beaten with brush and fish were driven in. 

This was the method pursued by the Indians for ages before, for 
these rude walls bore unmistakable evidence of great age. 

With the exception of the two days each week when the wardens 
were present anyone could use them. 

Frequently the early settlers would find the basket-like trap well 
filled with magnificent fish, and all our fathers had to do was to take 
the helpless captives out, unless a multitude had to be fed, when they 
resorted to the method just described. 

Excavations and improvements in the interest of navigation and 
manufactures have obliterated all traces of these interesting old mon- 
uments of another race. 

The explorers of 1652 arrived when they were in use and largely 
relied upon by the natives for a food supply. 

They camped here for a night or two, or shared the rude hospitality 
of the friendlv Indians. 



12 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

They were at the head of tlie Merrimack. They saw for the first 
time the wonderful lake of which they had heard so much. 

They cut the iiame of Governor Endicott and their own initials in 
deep letters upon the stone tablet and departed, never to return. 

Their stay was necessarily short. Nineteen days were consumed in 
the entire journey. The expenses were about eighty-four pounds. 

Under date of October 19, 1652, Sherman and Ince made a report, 
as follows : 

"John Sherman and Jonathan Ince on their oaths say, that at 
Aquedoctan the name of the head of the Merrimack where it issues 
out of the Lake called Winnapeeseakit, upon the ist day of August, 
1652 we observed, and by observation found, that the latitude of the 
place was 43°, 40', 12", besides those minutes which are to be allowed 
for the three miles more North wch. run into the Lake." 

No doubt the observations were made at noon of the day upon 
which the stone was inscribed. The date may have been cut upon its 
surface. Drill holes which were evidently designed to attract atten- 
tion and make the monument conspicuous, are still apparent, but no 
traces of the date remain. 

After the departure of the noted discoverers, years rolled away. 
The red men disappeared. The ancient solitude reigned again for 
a while upon the uninhabited shores of Winnipesaukee. 

A century later, or a little more, and white settlers came and civil- 
ization slowly advanced. 

The old controversies, involving jurisdiction, titles, and boundaries, 
had long been settled, and once important reports and documents had 
been lost or filed away and forgotten. 

Another generation was upon the stage. Willard, Johnson, Sher- 
man, and Ince had been sleeping more than a hundred and fifty years, 
and no man lived who knew aught of the inscribed stone ; but the 
faithful sentinel silently kept the mysterious record unobserved until a 
laborer in the employ of Stephen C. Lyford, in 1833, noticed " The 
queer marks," and called Lyford's attention to them. 

The name of Governor Endicott was easily read, and the same day 
the discovery was made known to the late eminent Judge George Y. 
Sawyer, who was then prstcticing law at Meredith Bridge. 

The next morning, Lyford, Sawyer, Daniel Tucker, and John T. 
Coffin visited the Weirs and made a most enthusiastic examination. 

Mr. Sawyer investigated the whole matter, and, with Col. Philip 
Carrigain, prepared an article which appears in volume four of the 
Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society. 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 13 

In a letter to me Judge Sawyer says, "all enquiries made by Messrs. 
Lyford, Tucker, and Coffin, as well as by myself, of aged people, failed 
to elicit any information in regard to the inscription, and we were con- 
vinced that there was no knowledge of such sculptured rock, or any 
tradition of its existence among the people in that section of the 
country," 

Since its discovery the waters of the lake have been controlled by 
the dam at Lakeport, so that the surface has been covered a great por- 
tion of the time, and it was found that the water and ice were rapidly 
obliterating the inscription. 

In October, 1880, casts were made by two Italian artists of Pjoston, 
Senors Luchini and Caproni, one of which is preserved in the rooms 
of the New Hampshire Historical Society at Concord. One was given 
to the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a third to 
the proprietors of the locks and canals on the Merrimack river, whose 
office is in Lowell. Several others are in existence. 

But while the inscription was quite well defined, and to prevent 
further destruction, the Legislature of New Hampshire, September 7, 
1883, and August 25, 1885, made appropriations and the State 
appointed commissioners to insure its preservation. 

The merely ornamental has been sacrificed in the attempt to make 
the work appropriate, massive, and permanent. 

Ages hence, when we, with the most of mankind have been forgot- 
ten — when the great republic shall number more than two hundred 
millions, when the Aquedoctan of the Penacooks shall be the abode of 
a vast multitude, and the shore and the islands of our magnificent lake 
shall be richly adorned with homes of luxury and splendor — this cJd 
historic treasure, shielded with stately care from vandalism, elemental 
onsets and the ravages of time, shall continue in its abiding simplicity, 
an object of surpassing interest, an impressive relic of colonial days, 
and the time worn inscription shall be viewed with becoming rever- 
ence, while the tablet which our generation has erected for the instruc- 
tion of those who come after us, in the distant years, under the then 
venerable, time battered, and mutilated shrine which stubbornly a.ssays 
its protection, shall mutely tell its concise story witli monumental 
fidelity to those who shall assemble here. 

As we look back two hundred and forty years, it seems a long time, 
but how insignificant when compared with the measureless years of 
solitude through which this gray old sentinel silently guarded the out- 
let of the lake, and the more distant years when Winnipesaukee turned 
its waters into the sea bv another channel, and there was no "head of 



14 REPORT OF THK ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

the Merrimack" here — or with the glacial wanderings of this voiceless 
stone from its cradle bed in the infinite past — when there was no 
beautiful water of the highlands, and the smile of the Great Spirit had 
not rested among the hills. 

Wonderful indeed has been the unrecorded history of this now 
exalted wanderer ; more wonderful yet are the vicissitudes which 
await it. 

It beheld nature's tumultuous uproar and saw the awful conditions 
prior to the appearance of man. 

Races have vanished and been buried in eternal oblivion before 
this primeval stone. So shall our race perish and be forgotten in the 
infinite years, and as the lifeless planet shall swing into the wild and 
stormy hereafter, relentless time, scorning our efforts to perpetuate the 
work of human hands, with Titanic blows shall beat the Endicott Rock 
into impalpable dust. 

The address of Mr. Jewell was followed by music by 
Rublee's band, at the close of which, Mr. John Kimball, 
chairman of the commission, gave a detailed account 
of its work, at the close of which, in behalf of the com- 
mission, he proceeded to transfer to Governor Tuttle, as 
chief magistrate of New Hampshire, the completed 
structure now covering the Endicott Rock. 

REMARKS OF MR. KIMBALL. 

From 1652 to 1833, a period of one hundred and eighty-one years, 
the people of New Hampshire had no knowledge of the Endicott Rock. 
It is to be presumed that the inscription cut in the rough boulder in 
1652 was plain and legible. The frost of winter and the h'feat of sum- 
mer, assisted by the ice in passing over the rock from the lake to the 
river, had disintegrated the surface so that the inscription was slowly 
disappearing. 

Since the discovery in 1833, the interest in this rock has been 
increasing. A large number of tourists have annually visited it. A 
general impression prevailed that something should be done to preserve 
it. September 7, 1883, a half of a century after its discovery, the 
Legislature of New Hampshire passed a joint resolution appropriating 
$400 for the " preservation and protection of the Endicott Rock at 
the Weirs, in the town of Laconia." Nothing was done until October 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION, 15 

25, 1S84, wlien the jjovernor and council appointed Erastus 1'. Jewell, 
of Laconia : John Kimball, of Concord ; and Waldo E. Buck, of Lake- 
port, commissioners to carry into effect the act of the Legislature. 
Lewis D. Badger, of Lakeport, was employed to raise the stone from 
its bed in the sand to a point above high water mark, and place under 
it a suitable foundation for the stone and structure which is now built 
thereon. On account of a seam running diagonally tiirough the stone, 
it was found necessary to strengthen it by the use of iron rods running 
through and around it. The rock was about twelve feet long, six feet 
wide, and four feet thick. The corners were worn off so that the ends 
were circular in form. It was found necessary to reduce the length to 
eight feet. The top of the rock is four feet above the pebbly beach 
which surrounds it. 

The amount appropriated being insufficient to provide for the suit- 
able protection and jDreservation of the rock, on August 25, 1885, the 
Legislature appropriated a further sum of $720. For the next six years 
the water in the lake was unusually high, until the dry season of 1891, 
when the water receded so that the work so long delayed, could be 
completed. During this time, Mr. Buck, one of the commissioners, 
had removed from the State. On December 22, 1891, the governor 
and council appointed Joseph B. Walker, of Concord, to fill the 
vacancy. 

Edward Dow, an architect, of Concord, had made a design of the 
building to be placed around and over the rock. This design has been 
modified by Giles Wheeler, of Concord, and the commissioners, and 
adopted by them. It consists of a building of Concord granite, fifteen 
feet long, fourteen feet wide at the base, and thirteen feet high. The 
bottom course of stone resting on the foundation is one foot, three 
inches thick. The second course is twelve inches thick, receding 
toward the centre twelve inches, and forming a step twelve inches wide 
around the building. The third course is one foot, three inches thick, 
receding from the second course twelve inches, and forming a second 
step twelve inches wide. On this course there is a three inch splay. 
The three courses of stone with the Endicott Rock form a solid mass 
of stone and cement four feet high. On this masonry is erected a 
building of heavy block stone ten feet, six inches long, eight feet, six 
inches wide on the outside ; and seven feet high on the inside, over 
the rock. 

This is surmounted by a capstone (in two parts) forming a solid 
stone roof twelve feet long, and ten feet wide. On the top of this 
stone roof is a block of granite four feet, six inches long, by two feet. 



16 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

six inches wide, and ten inches thicl-c, which is ready to receive a bronze 
statue of Governor John Endicott, or some other personage who per- 
formed an important part in our colonial history. On the north, west, 
and south sides of this building there are three openings six feet high 
by three and one half feet wide. In each of these openings there is 
inserted a brass grill to protect the rock and its inscription. The 
surface of the rock can be seen and the letters of the original inscrip- 
tion, having been covered with gold leaf, can easily be read from either 
of the openings. On the east side of the building there is a polished 
granite panel facing the front or west opening, six feet high by four feet 
wide. Upon this panel there is cut the following inscription : 

ENDICOTT ROCK. 



The name of 

lOHN Endicvt Gov. 

and the initials of 

Edward Johnson and Simon Willard, commissioners 

of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 

John Sherman and Jonathan Ince, surveyors, were inscribed upon 

this rock 

August I, 1652, 

to mark the head of Merrimack River. 

A line three miles northward of this rock was then claimed by that 
colony as the northern limit of their patent. 

EI S W 

W P lOHN 

ENDICVT 
GOV 
IS II 

The structure which covers this historic stone, long known as 
Endicott Rock, was erected for its protection, in 1892, by the State of 
New Hampshire, in accordance with Joint Resolutions of its Legis- 
lature, approved September 7, 1883, and August 25, 1885. 

JOHN KIMBALL, 
ERASTUS P. JEWELL, 
JOSEPH B. WALKER, 

Co)ninissioners . 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 17 

To the following named contractors who have executed the several 
parts of the work, due credit should be given: Foundation, Lewis U. 
Badger, Lakeport ; cut stone work, Granite Railway Company, Joseph 
H. Pearce, superintendent, Concord ; moving stone from cars to the 
rock, W. J. Morrison, Laconia ; laying the stone, F. E. House, Man- 
chester; building the bridge, Henry C. Batchelder, Laconia; brass grill, 
T. F. McGann, Boston ; gilding the inscription, Ezra A. Page, Laconia ; 
cutting the inscription in panel, S. Andrew Smith, Concord; superin- 
tendent of the work, Giles Wheeler, Concord. I will not burden you 
with an account of the expense in detail, only to say that the whole 
cost is $2,426.82. 

Your excellency the governor, and the honoral)le council : And now 
it only remains for the commissioners to deliver this building into your 
hands, who are for tlie time being its lawful custodians. Permit me 
to sav in behalf of the commissioners that we are grateful for the con- 
lidence reposed in us by you and your predecessors ; and we close our 
labors hoping that this structure will be reasonably satisfactory to the 
people of New Hampshire, and will preserve and protect the Endicott 
Rock as required by the acts of its Legislature, for two hundred and 
forty years, at least. 

In accepting the structure thus tendered, his excel- 
lency replied as follows : 

ADDRESS OF GOVERNOR TUTTLE. 

Mr. President a)id Fellow Citizens: 

In behalf of the people of New Hampshire, I accept, from the hon- 
orable commissioners who have acted in their name and behalf, the 
completed and finished structure, designed to preserve an historic relic 
of great interest to our people and to give to it that celebrity to which 
it is entitled. It gives me great pleasure to say to the commissioners, 
entrusted with this work, that it has been well done, and I gladly tender 
to them, not only my own thanks, but also those of the honorable 
council, for the wisdom and fidelity with which they have applied the 
appropriations, made by the Legislature, to the object sought to be 
accomplished. 

The Endicott Rock is a New Hampshire landmark, only in a phys- 
ical sense, as it rests upon New Hampshire soil and is bathed by her 
waters. In its political significance and historical association its record 



18 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

belongs to our sister commonwealth of Massachusetts, who claimed to 
exercise jurisdiction over this gateway to our marvelous mountain 
regions, nearly two and a half centuries ago. She made her record 
here, three miles south of her supposed northern boundary, more than 
a quarter of a century before the formation of the first council for the 
government of any part of our present territory under the name of 
New Hampshire, and one hundred and twenty-four years before the 
adoption of our first and temporary constitution, which was also the first 
constitution adopted by any State that became a member of the 
American Union. 

An event of such significance as the attempt of the colony of Mas- 
sachusetts to establish her boundary three miles north of the source of 
the Merrimack, according to the terms of her grant, in what is now 
the heart of our State, can never fail to be of deejD and absorbing interest 
to every student of our early history ; and the judgment of all will be that 
our State has acted wisely and well in preserving, for the inspection of 
the generations who will succeed us, an object whose historic interest 
can never diminish so long as these beautiful shores and charming 
waters shall gladden the eye of man. Those who have preceded me 
have spoken so eloquently and given us so clearly the historic events 
pertinent to this occasion, that 1 need not invade that field so fruitful 
in thought and suggestion. 

In conclusion, I congratulate the people of our State that their Leg- 
islature had the wisdom and generosity to make provision for the 
preservation of this ancient historic landmark ; and 1 congratulate all 
who have an interest in whatever relates to the experiences of the 
founders of this now mighty empire of the New World, upon the most 
happy and successful accomplishment of this patriotic purpose. 

Music was again given by the band, after which, in 
the absence of His Excellency Governor Russell and of 
the Hon. Williiim C. Endicott, of Massachusetts, who, 
it had been expected would be present, the Rev. Dr. 
Peabody was invited to respond for the grand old com- 
monwealth by whose officers and in whose behalf the 
Endicott Rock was inscribed and made historic. 

Thereupon, Dr. Peabody made an able and eloquent 
impromptu address, in the course of which he alluded to 
his former residence in New Hampshire and paid a high 
tribute to its people. 



REPORT OF TIIK KNDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 10 

At the close of Dr. Peabody's address, the president 
reminded the audience that the exercises of such an 
occasion would be entirely unsatisfactory unless ratified 
b)' the New Hampshire Historical Society, which had 
done what it could to preserve the early history of the 
State and that it would hardly be safe to terminate them 
without hearing from that venerable body, whose presi- 
dent is with us ; a Scotch Irishman, in part, by blood, 
but a Puritan at heart ; by both blood and heart, a worthy 
representative of whatever is best among us. Hon. John 
J. Bell, of Exeter, was then invited to address the 
assembly in behalf of the New Hampshire Historical 
Society, and responded in an interesting speech detail- 
ing with care important events in the early history of 
New Hampshire. 

At the close of Mr. Bell's address, the president 
remarked that, while he had been speaking, a trial had 
been made of the stone weirs, so graphically described by 
Mr. Jewell, as extending from shore to shore of the river, 
in the form of a capital W, whose points extending down 
stream opened into two small, circular inclosures for the 
capture of the fish driven into the same from above by 
loud outcries and splashings of the water ; and that, an 
examination of these, just made, had revealed the grat- 
ifying fact that in one of them had been captured a live 
senator. Thereupon, Senator William E. Chandler, 
whose name was not upon the programme, was invited 
to make the closing address, and was presented to the 
assembly. 

ADDRESS OF HON. WILLIA.M E. CHANDLER. 

Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen: 

If the commissioners have caught me as a tish in tlie weirs, I must 
be brief or j-ou will not let me escape alive. It is hardly fair to ask 
one to speak at this late hour who had expected to listen, or at most to 
extend a cordial greeting to Governor Russell and Ex-Secrctary Endi- 



20 REPORT OP THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

cott, who were to represent Massachusetts on this occasion. Perhaps, 
on reflection, tliey felt ashamed to come here and defend the movement 
which resulted in marking the Endicott Rock. The president of the 
New Hampshire Historical Society, the Hon. John J. Bell, has 
informed us that the desire of Massachusetts to extend her jurisdiction 
over the New Hampshire towns and the Maine settlements, arose only 
from her policy of spreading the principles of civil and religious lib- 
erty. I think there was another motive. I realize that Massachusetts 
is represented here by our distinguished and venerable friend, the 
Rev. Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, and I beg to assure him that although 
I may bear down on Massachusetts to begin with, I will make it all 
right before I finish. That excursion of Maj. Simon Willard and 
Capt. Edward Johnson, commissioners, and John Sherman and 
Jonathan Ince, surveyors, to Aquedoctan was one of the most prepos- 
terous land-grabbing expeditions of which the world has a record. It 
seems that on a previous excursion, in 1638, a tree had been marked as 
the northern boundary of Massachusetts, near the junction of the 
Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers. When the agents, in 1652, 
reached this junction, they were told by an Indian that the stream 
to follow up as the Merrimack was the Winnipesaukee, and so they 
took that route, and located their boundary as three miles out into the 
lake, north of the marked rock where we now^ are. I think New 
Hampshire ought to be everlastingly grateful to that Indian and to 
erect to him a monument. If it had not been for him the Massachu- 
setts party might have followed the Pemigewasset to its extreme source 
and have drawn an east and west line three miles further north, and 
then Massachusetts would have claimed all of the White Mountains, 
and might have held so noble a prize to this da}-. 

Consider further this Endicott rock-marking excursion. The char- 
tered northern boundary of Massachusetts was an east and west line 
three miles north of the most northerly part of the Merrimack river. 
Then it was supposed that the Merrimack ran from west to east through 
its whole course, and Massachusetts established her towns all along 
the northerly side — SaHsbury, Almsbury, Haverhill, Methuen, and 
Dracut. After it became known that at Dracut the course of the river 
was south, the colony began to push their claims to the north ; and so 
these excursionists of 1652 came to the Endicott Rock and discovered 
that the place was forty-three degrees, forty minutes, and twelve seconds 
of north latitude ; and three miles being added, the line fell within 
the lake at forty-three degrees, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds. 
Did they then follow out the line to the eastward to the ocean ? Not at 



REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 21 

all. It was a wilderness through which they did not dare to travel a 
single mile. They retreated south by the route they had come, with 
their sail-boat and their Indian and went back to old Boston and made 
their report. The general court then hired, no longer woodsmen, but 
seamen, "two experienced • shipmasters," Jonas Clarke and Samuel 
Andrews, and sent them off across the sea to the coast of Maine, where 
they found forty-three degrees, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds 
of latitude in Casco bay, on Clapboard island. Thereupon Massachu- 
setts claimed that her northern boundary was a. line drawn east and 
west through Casco bay and Lake Winnipesaukee, from the Atlantic to 
the South Sea, which my friend, President John J. Bell, has just told 
me meant the Pacific ocean ; over not one mile of which northern 
boundary had a single Mas.sachusetts colonist, or agent of the general 
court, ever traveled or ever dared to travel. This was the claim of 
right on the part of Massachusetts to rule New Hampshire — at which 
we can well laugh to-day I 

But after all, on fuller view, Massachusetts deserves all the eulogy 
which President Bell has given her. If any in the New Hampshire 
towns disliked her jurisdiction, they were able soon to witness her 
humiliation. The old Bay colony did stand for civil and religious lib- 
erty, and resisted the oppressions of Charles the Second, and the 
arbitrary governors he sent over, and the renegades among their own 
number whom those governors seduced. If the men of Massachusetts 
had been cringing and servile, they might have held New Hampshire 
fast in their control. But they resisted the merry monarch and his 
minions, and before many years had passed after the Endicott Rock 
excursion, it was decided by the English judges that New Hampshire 
was not within the chartered limits of Massachusetts: and in 1684, the 
persecution of that colony resulted in the destruction of its charter upon 
quo warranto proceedings in the English courts. But this humiliation 
was not long to be endured. The New Hampshire towns .sympathized 
with Massachusetts; the revolution of 1688 was at hand; and when 
at last came the downfall of the Stuart dynasty in the mother country, 
the Puritan blood was up, and the Bay colonists arose against Sir 
Edmund Andros, and shut him up a prisoner in Fort Hill castle, and 
also against the faithless chief justice, Jo. Dudley, and the perni- 
cious Edward Randolph, and laid them by the heels in the common 
jail at Boston ! 

This is my amende to Massachusetts. From that time down to this 
generation, in every battle for high principles, the men of Massachu- 
setts and the men of New Hampshire have fought shoulder to shoulder, 



22 REPORT OF THE ENDICOTT ROCK COMMISSION. 

beginning in tlie Revolution at Bunker Hill, and ending at Yorktown ; 
and in the late war of the rebellion, brethren of a common ancestry, 
they fought side by side for that liberty and union which is their blood- 
bought heritage and their unending glory. New Hampshire can have 
but one issue with Massachusetts over the Endicott Rock. It shall 
remain where it is, with its Massachusetts inscriptions. If agents of 
the commonwealth come to take it away, they must come with arms in 
their hands. The New^ Hampshire boys will fight to keep it as a 
precious portion of her soil. But this, and this alone, may Massa- 
chusetts do. Upon the ediiice which the State of New Hampshire 
has erected, there is room for a noble statue. Let us all agree and 
hope that the sons of the old Bay colony and State may there appro- 
priately place a likeness of their grand old Puritan chieftain, the 
father of Massachusetts, none other than the worshipful John Endi- 
cott, governor. 

As remarked by Mr. Kimball in his foregoing address, 
the cost of the stone structure caused to be erected by the 
commissioners appointed for the protection of the oldest 
existing public monument within our limits, has exceeded 
the appropriations made by the Legislature in the sum 
of thirteen hundred and six dollars and eighty-two cents 
($1,306.82). This sum the commissioners have ad- 
vanced in the full confidence of being reimbursed by the 
State, as it was found during its progress that the work 
could not be satisfactorily executed for the amount 
appropriated. 

Respectfully submitted, 

JOHN KIMBALL, 
ERASTUS P. JEWELL, 
JOSEPH B. WALKER, 
Commissioners for the Preservation and 

Protection of the Endicott Pock. 

Concord, N. H., October 26, 1892. 



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